Chicago: Hundreds of female and underage immigrants were released from detention centres in Texas after a state judge ruled that such sites could not legally house children, an immigrant advocacy group said Tuesday.

The 470 detainees were being held at two privately-run detention centres, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which confirmed their release.

Asylum-seeking immigrants are routinely released after their cases are initially processed, but the weekend’s release was unusually high, according to the San Antonio-based group Refugee and Immigrant Centre for Education and Legal Services (RAICES).

At least four times more people were released than usual, said RAICES policy director Amy Fischer.

‘We’re in the process of moving them out, getting them on flights and buses,’ Fischer said.

The release came after a Friday ruling by Travis County District Court Judge Karin Crump that the detention sites could not be considered child care providers.

In a statement, ICE said that the releases were ‘scheduled as a part of normal operations and not in response to the court ruling,’ and that it is reviewing the judge’s decision. The agency did not respond to AFP’s request for comment on the size of the release.

‘Failed experiment’

The immigrants had been held at the South Texas Family Residential Centre and the Karnes County Residential Center, both located south of San Antonio. Their detentions ranged in length from a few hours to a few weeks, Fischer said.

More than a quarter of the released detainees had not been interviewed to assess whether they fear persecution or torture in their home countries, a requisite step for asylum seekers, Fischer said.

One was also sent to a hospital for a severe, untreated leg infection, she said.

‘The medical care in detention is extraordinarily poor,’ Fischer said, adding that underage detainees had in the past been released with untreated pneumonia.

Undocumented female immigrants and their children have been held inside walled ‘family unit’ detention sites since a 2014 spike of refugees arriving in the United States, most of them fleeing violence in Central America.

‘We can only hope this is a sign that the Obama Administration is finally deciding to end this failed experiment in family detention,’ Jonathan Ryan, executive director of RAICES, said in a statement.

Texas immigration advocates had gone to court to stop housing children at the detention centres.

Considering the detention centres as child care facilities ‘runs counter to the general objectives of the Texas Human Resources Code,’ which protects the health, safety and well-being of children, Judge Crump said in her Friday ruling.

ICE said 2,393 immigrants are still held at the two facilities, with an additional 86 at a third detention site.